Playa del Rey Art

This is the newest piece of artwork that I've put up in our home. It's in the family room, which was recently re-painted (again), this time with Benjamin Moore's Hibiscus. My dear departed dad gave me this painting several years ago.

My dad was a thrift-shop dealer and devoted garage sale-r, and occasionally rented spaces in large antique markets -- and off and on, even leased his own store fronts. It's from him that I inherited my deep and abiding love for old stuff. In fact, when I'm feeling blue, or missing him more than usual, spending an afternoon browsing among the local stores in our Old Town antique district calms me immeasurably. At no other time can I hear his voice so clearly in my head, as when I pick up a piece of pottery and hear him scoff at the marked-up price.

Anyway, he gave me this painting a while back, and I loved it -- but then stuffed it away in my already over-stuffed garage. Recently I re-discovered it, and it was quite a "eureka" moment.

The painting depicts a busy and bustling scene in a beach town -- I guessed immediately that it was somewhere here in Southern California, and was right. I Googled both the names of the street (Culver), and a seafood restaurant visible in the foreground, and learned that the scene is in Playa del Rey. Playa del Rey is a small beach community, near larger South Bay towns like El Segundo and Marina del Rey. Judging from the cars and the girls in the bikini's, I'm guessing the painting was done sometime in the late 60s or very early 70s.

It was also very filthy -- I cleaned it with some soap and water, testing a very small patch, first. The wet paper towel came off quite black and grimy, and then progressed to yellow the more I cleaned (ugh -- from a smoker's home?). The painting, untitled and unsigned, is still a bit faded, but this adds to it's vintage charm (for me, anyway).

I fretted about how to frame it -- never having framed a stretched canvas before. I ultimately ordered a custom frame from Custom Frame Solutions, an online site that lets you choose your wood moldings from several styles and colors -- and very affordable, too. I wanted something that looked old, as if it had come with the painting -- and I think I chose perfectly. (Rare for me, when I order such things off the internet.) The wood even has a very slight yellow-green tinge to it.

So, here's my Playa del Rey artwork. I love it, even more for the sentimental history behind how it was acquired.
Here's a larger room-view. I'm eager to start a bit of a gallery wall, with other prints surrounding the painting. I've already bought one print; still need a few others. I'll share it here whenever that happens.

And here's a close-up of the flowers I bought at our local farmer's market. A dollar a stem, and worth every cent. Don't know what they're called (pincushions?), but how great are they?